Like the caller from New Zealand, you may have watched Chris Brogan's presentation on your computer via StagePost Media's AuthorsWay.com site this morning. Add it to the list of reasons why I'm happy to live in Nashville, though: StagePost's studio is just a few miles north of the Marla Ink operations hub, so I was able to be there in person for the full, extended event.

Chris, who is co-author with Julien Smith of the new book, Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust, shared insights and tips about leveraging social media and the web to "be there before the sale." Here are just a few of my take-aways:

Make Twitter more useful and more manageable by setting up searches. Search on terms other people (i.e., customers) use, not the terms YOU would use.

Customer service is blending in more with marketing than ever before.

Distort the system. Your only other option is to work within the system and get the same results as everyone else.

Make your own game. Examples: Cirque du Soleil (the upscale circus). Perez Hilton (People Magazine and the tabloids weren’t interested in hiring him so he created the outlet for himself.)

Chris’s anecdotes about BarCamp, particularly the session he held entitled "Teach Me Final Cut Pro” (the title is self-explanatory), really provided some food for thought. People love to hear from the "rock stars" and gurus, but are we missing out on new thinking, new ideas and new voices if we don’t listen more broadly? Are there lessons in collaborative peer-to-peer learning that can be applied in business, both internally as well as externally?

And in the category of "I want one!" The Flip camcorder looks to be a great social media and marketing tool. How would you use it to build your influence?

Finally, just look at what the web and social media are making possible -- whether you live in Nashville or not, whether it's even still Thursday where you are, it doesn't matter. You were still able to participate in this event in real time. And if you wanted to ask a question, you could pick your method: call in, send an email, tweet, raise your hand.

It's a perfect example of how social media tools can be applied to business, especially when the question we need to keep asking ourselves is, Are we meeting people where they are?